


Back to You

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Depa Billaba Lives, Gen, Minor Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29304294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Depa has spent more years than she can count locked in a small Imperial cell, until the day she's rescued by a small Rebel team.
Relationships: Depa Billaba & Kanan Jarrus
Comments: 26
Kudos: 91
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Back to You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CeruleanTactician](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CeruleanTactician/gifts).



There had been pain. Depa remembered it as a vicious creature, crawling over and inside her body with no escape. There had been pain, and there had been questions, years of questions, drying up slowly like rain puddles under a sullen, wet sky, until only the memory of water remained below, with the threat hanging ever over her head. There had been no pain in several years, at least no more pain than accompanied growing older during a long incarceration in a small cell.

Nothing they'd done to her during her many interrogations had hurt as much as the ache inside her while her friends had perished on that one dark, sad day. Years had passed, the interrogations had ceased, and Depa had accepted within herself that she might be the last survivor of all the Jedi, left alive here in her cell and forgotten save by the droids who brought her food. One interrogator had given her news that her padawan had been killed while being apprehended, and only with the merest afterthought had he mentioned Grey and Styles had died as well. She'd hoped somehow that they might come to their senses after the strange madness passed, and instead she could only mourn her men and the boy she'd failed to protect.

Once the questioning ceased, she spent much time in deep meditation. The Force was her only companion, and she made her acquaintance with it like a living thing, sometimes spending days at a time with her mind seeking wisdom and comfort from this one remaining friend.

She'd been in a trance state for over a day when she was awakened abruptly by her cell door opening. The droids who guarded her never opened her door, only sent food through a small opening. Depa had not looked at another living person since her last interrogator had left her here, and her hair had grown long, striking streaks of white since then.

The stormtrooper stared at her for a long moment. Depa was deep within the Force still, and felt his presence as though a brilliant light burned into her dark existence. "Don't worry," he said in a voice too young for his armor. "Come with me." He spoke into a commlink. "I've got the prisoner."

Depa blinked in dull confusion. For a moment, fear spiked through her. She didn't cower away, but she readied herself. Despite her long incarceration, her muscles were as toned as they could be from the exercises she'd put herself to over the long hours. She had no lightsaber, but she could fight him.

"Oh, sorry," he said, and pulled off his helmet. A human boy, no more than eighteen, smiled at her. His brilliant blue eyes laughed at his own foolishness. "I'm here to rescue you." He held out his hand.

Depa stood, taking the hand partly as a means of assessing him further. The Force flowed strongly through him, and he gasped as she touched him. "You're a Jedi," he said, wonder in his voice.

"Yes. As are you."

"I'm still learning. But I won't learn more if we don't get out of here." He headed down the corridor. Depa stepped out of her cell for the first time in years, and the sudden openness around her, even in a cramped hallway, was almost too much for her senses. She took a breath and followed him.

Her rescuer talked to her as they hurried. "We got word there was a prisoner being kept here, very hush hush. Did you know you're the only one in this whole facility?"

"I didn't have much opportunity to make friends." Her voice felt strange in her mouth. Words didn't sound like they came from her.

"Guess not. That's fine. You can be friends with us once we're out of here. My master is busy causing a distraction for us, but you'll meet him soon. My name's Ezra."

The Force glowed a strange warning inside her mind, not as a danger, but as precipice to a great change in her life. If she told him her name, she could never untell him, and whatever was to come would come. This could be some kind of trap, or a trick, ready to catch out her remaining secrets.

But what had she left of her old life to protect? "Depa."

Ezra froze in his tracks, surprise streaming from him like robes in a stiff wind. "What?"

"My name is Depa Billaba." His shock and confusion weren't going to get them out of here. "But we can save the introductions for later. Where are we headed?"

"Right. This way," he said, shooting glances back at her now like she was some strange and wondrous being. They ran into a knot of stormtroopers. Ezra lit a green lightsaber and went on the attack.

Depa reached out with the Force and easily shoved them all up against one wall in a confused tangle.

"That works, too," he said. They ran for it, coming out at a hatch leading directly to the inhospitable outdoors. Depa knew this lonely outpost prison was on a world that couldn't support life.

"What's your plan?"

" _Ghost_ , ready for pickup at my signal," he said into a commlink.

"Coming to your position now," said a woman's voice in reply.

More stormtroopers appeared from around a corner. Ezra blocked their blaster bolts with his lightsaber, directing some back into their armor. Depa saw the blaster holstered at his hip, grabbed it, and fired stun blasts at the others. She hadn't practiced in years with one of these but she hadn't forgotten. Mace had insisted she become proficient with many weapons other than just her lightsaber.

"A Jedi's ally and primary weapon is the Force," he'd told her. "But a bowcaster could save your life one day." This was no bowcaster but the principle was the same, and despite being years out of practice, her aim was still good. Within moments, their attackers lay stunned on the cold deck plates.

"In position," said the voice on the commlink.

"Ready?" Ezra asked her, and Depa nodded once. He pressed the door panel controls, exposing them to the vicious weather outside. A second later, a ship appeared right beside the door, and a hatch opened. Ezra grabbed her hand, and together they hurried, leaping into the hatch together. He slammed his palm on the control panel. "We're in!"

Depa felt the ship swoop up and away from the prison where she'd spent years without counting. She was free. The realization struck her with a solid blow.

"Hey," said Ezra, face dropping into concern. "Let's get you inside. You've been through a lot."

In his kind gaze, she could almost see her own reflection, and she knew how thin and bedraggled she must look. She'd had a thin spigot of fresh, cold water in her cell to drink, and to wash herself, her hair, her clothes. She'd grown wan, and even though she'd been able to fight at his side, she was far weaker than she'd been when she had first been taken there, bleeding from a dozen blaster shots from the men she'd once trusted with her life.

"How long has it been?"

Ezra's face went blank, and that told her plenty. "Since when?" he asked with a playful, false tone.

"I was captured years ago. I felt the other Jedi die, all of them. How long ago?"

"A long time," he admitted, seeing the plea in her face. He led her through the ship, which was comfortingly small and cozy. They went to the cockpit. The pilot, a Twi'lek, was slapping switches as though she was angry with them.

" _Phantom_ , get ready to rendezvous as soon as we exit atmosphere."

"Roger that," said another woman over the comm. Depa listened in wonder. She'd heard nothing but the voices of her guards for years.

"Hera," Ezra said.

"In a minute."

"It's important. Before we meet up with the _Phantom_." Outside, blaster bolts whizzed by them, emerald lights barely missing their ship.

"As important as not getting blown up?"

"About as important."

Hera spun their ship, neatly dodging another array of blasts, and zoomed them up into the sky towards space. As soon as they were clear, she turned her seat. She looked at Depa and put on a friendly face. "Hello. Welcome to the _Ghost_."

"Thank you."

"Hera Syndulla," said Ezra in a tight voice. "I'd like to introduce you to Master Depa Billaba."

The friendly face froze solid.

* * *

" _Phantom_ , get ready to dock." Hera's voice sounded a little off. Kanan wondered if she or Ezra had been hurt in the prisoner extraction. The distraction team had gotten away clean. Their closest call had been a blaster bolt close enough to Zeb to scorch some of his fur.

Sabine said, "Docking now." She brought the _Phantom II_ into its slot at the back of the _Ghost_ , and the shuttle rocked gently as the clamps engaged. The artificial gravity of the _Ghost_ took over, an almost imperceptible change but one he welcomed even as the joined ships burst into hyperspace a moment later.

"Do not disembark," Hera said over the comm as Zeb reached for the hatch.

Sabine asked, "Why?"

"I'm coming aboard. Wait there." She didn't have to say it was an order. Kanan worried more. He reached out with his senses to Ezra, but he didn't feel any trouble echoing back. He did sense something else unexpected.

A minute later, the hatch opened from the other side, and Hera climbed in.

"What's wrong?" he asked her, but he felt her turn from him towards the newest member of their team.

"What do you know about the prisoner you told us about?"

Kanan didn't need the Force to sense the discomfort in formerly-Agent Kallus. "Not much. By the end, I was digging through as much information as I could without drawing suspicion. The intel doc I read said there was a high value prisoner on this planet. Nothing else."

Zeb asked, "Is there a problem with the prisoner?" Kanan couldn't get a read on his question, either. He and Kallus had tried to kill each other plenty of times, but since Kallus had joined them, the two had become fast friends. Kanan wasn't sure if he was worried Kallus had betrayed them after all, or if he was ready to argue with Hera that he wouldn't have.

"The prisoner is a Jedi," said Kanan. "I can sense them through the ship."

He felt Hera turn to look at him now. He'd always been good at reading her emotions even when she didn't want him to. Now she was worried. "Yes."

"Another trick? Like Luminara?"

Sabine said with a sigh, "Not another Force corpse."

"This one's alive," said Hera. "But this might still be a trick, or a trap." She looked at Kallus again. "Give me your word you didn't know."

He sighed. "I understand why you don't trust me. I swear I didn't know the prisoner was a Jedi."

"I do trust you," said Hera. "I'm not sure I trust Thrawn not to have put the information in front of you as another test." She stepped closer to Kanan and took his hand. "Love, I need you to be careful. If this is a trap, you're the target."

And he knew. The muscles in his arms and legs turned to water. For a moment, he was a kid, running for his life while the blasters fired behind him, destroying everything. "It can't be. They killed her."

"You'd know better than any of us. But there's a woman on the _Ghost_ right now who says her name is Depa Billaba, and for what it's worth, I believe her."

He listened to the gasps from Zeb and Sabine. Kallus stayed silent, but then he wouldn't understand the same way. He'd read Kanan's file. Sabine and Zeb both had lived with the shadow Depa's death had cast across Kanan's whole life.

Warned, worried, he followed Hera back down the ladder to the ship, and the rest followed. Hera said, "Can you three run the _Phantom_ through a quick diagnostic? Make sure everything is fine?"

"Right," said Sabine, catching on first. "Come on, you two. Maintenance time." She shouted, "Chopper! Get back here! You're helping!"

Chopper's wheels whirred as he made his way towards the hatch, and he muttered binary swears at having to do yet more work that anyone else could be doing instead. "Yeah, yeah," said Zeb. "Shut your ratchet."

Hera led the way to the cockpit. From inside, he heard Ezra talking, and another voice reply. It sounded like the voice teaching him in his memories, the voice telling him to run in his nightmares. Kanan stopped short by the door. Hera took his arm. "You don't have to go in there."

"Yes, I do," he said, gathering himself, pressing his hand over hers for a moment. "I have to know." He removed the mask he wore and handed it to her for safe keeping.

"Ezra and I will stay right outside."

He said nothing, only palmed open the door control. The Force glowed inside both people in the cockpit, Ezra's familiar presence, and another he didn't know. "Hi," he said, and snapped his mouth shut again.

Ezra said, "Kanan. Hi. This is, uh."

"Hera filled me in."

"Ezra, can you come with me for a moment?" Hera asked. Ezra stepped by and out, the door closing behind him. Just as Hera had promised, her presence and his remained close by. Kanan set aside his awareness of them for the moment.

"You must be Ezra's teacher," she said after a moment, breaking the silence between them.

"Yes. I," he coughed, "I took him on as my student a few years ago."

"You've taught him well. He's kind, and he was very capable with his lightsaber when he rescued me. Thank you for that. I don't think I remembered to tell him. It's been a very busy, long day." She sounded tired. He longed to see her. He'd know her if he could see her. "A long everything. Tell me, were there many survivors?"

"No." He almost poured out the little he knew, but Hera was right and this could be a terrible, painful trap.

"How long have I been held prisoner?"

"You don't know?"

"No calendars in the prison cell, and I'm not the type to mark on the walls." There was a light of her old humor in the words. Depa had always had a wicked sense of humor, even if she'd tried to tamp it down as a good example for her young padawan.

He wanted to believe. "Ezra was born the day the Jedi were slaughtered."

Even without seeing her, he felt the shock run through her, and heard her sit heavily in the nearest chair. Paralysis broken, he stepped to her side, taking her hand, feeling how thin she'd grown over the hard, sad years. "I'm sorry," he said, as she caught her breath.

"I lost track," she said tightly. "That's all."

"Easy to do. I spent a lot of time trying to forget how long it had been. Now I've got a living clock who complains when I want him to go practice."

"Padawans are supposed to complain about what you tell them to do. It's part of our own growth experience we go through by training them. At least, that's what my master told me when my padawan whined about extra work."

"Hey, I never whined," he said, and it was out between them. He heard her soft intake of breath, and the jump of her arm in his hands.

"They said they killed you." A whole lifetime of regret and grief resounded in her words. He reached up and touched her face, then settled his forehead against hers as she wept silently.

"They keep trying," he said with a self-deprecating chuckle, fighting back his own tears.

"Was it the Empire that…?" Her own hand found his cheek, resting below one sightless eye.

"Sith lord, actually. Well, ex-Sith. He tried to kill me a lot too. I seem to have that effect on people."

"You defeated a Sith?" Depa asked, a surprised laugh breaking through her tears.

"I got away with my life multiple times from two Sith. I'm calling it a win."

"Fair enough. Caleb...."

The name shook him, even more than the rest. A single word, but it reverberated with her years of self-recrimination, and his own years of trying to drown her memory along with all his other memories. Ahsoka had called him 'Caleb' when they'd first spoken, and just as gently as he'd done then, he corrected Depa. "It's 'Kanan' now. I picked up the name when I went into hiding. Somewhere along the way, it started being me." He let out a breath. "It's what my family calls me."

"Family? Your crew?"

"You met Hera and Ezra. I'll introduce you to the others."

"I can't wait to meet them." There was a smile in her voice, wrapping the words in warmth. "I want to hear everything you've done with your life." She moved her arm until her fingers grasped his.

For a moment, he tried to think about what 'everything' encompassed. He wasn't proud of how he'd spent the first several years of his lonely exile, hiding from his past, drifting through the galaxy while losing himself in any bottle he could afford. He didn't look forward to telling Depa about those days, and he wasn't sure what her reaction would be when she discovered the catalyst for why he'd cleaned up his act. Ahsoka had barely batted an eye, but she'd had her own problems and Kanan's love life wasn't among them.

"There's a lot," he said. "I want to tell you all of it. The people I've met. The people here. We were all orphans, or homeless, or both, and we wound up together. Now I can't picture my life without them."

"I want to know." She squeezed his hand again. "I also want to know about what else I've missed. I've been locked away for so long. I don't know what's become of the galaxy. There's an Empire. I haven't seen a clone in over a decade. I've missed so much."

He sighed. "You have, and you're not going to like a lot of it. But when we get back to the base, you can meet a clone there. He's a friend of mine, too." He stood straight up, and after a moment, Depa got back to her feet, his arm guiding her. When he'd been a boy, she'd seemed as strong as a thunderstorm. Now she was as light as air. But even in the stillness of her breeze, he sensed the brewings of hurricanes to come. When she got her strength back, the Empire wouldn't know what had hit it, and he'd be right there at her side, as though he'd never left.

"Come on," he said, and opened the hatch. Sure enough, Hera and Ezra waited close by. "It's her," he told them.

"Told you," said Ezra.

"Thank the Force," said Hera.

Kanan nudged Depa. "Hera thought it might be a trap."

Depa said with amusement, "You sound like me."

"No, she doesn't," Kanan said far too quickly. He heard Ezra's snicker and gave him a glare where he more or less was sure the kid was standing. "Anyway, let's go introduce you to the rest of the family."

"After you," said Depa, and with only the slightest pause, she added, "Kanan."


End file.
